As part of the new budget, Illinois legislators will be taking home a fatter paycheck than they have for the past few years.
Voting to do away with a 4.6 percent reduction in salary that the legislature instituted in 2011 and renewed each year since, lawmakers will see about $3,100 more in their annual paychecks beginning July 1.
State Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, sponsored the original pay reduction bill in 2011 in an attempt to cause legislators to feel the pain of cuts just like various programs throughout the state were dealing with. This came in the form of 12 furlough days.
This year, Democrats carried the majority for reinstituting base pay.
The average state lawmaker will receive just short of $68,000 annually from this point forward, after being closer to $65,000 for the past three years. Legislators who also chair a committee receive about $10,000 on top of their base pay. There are more than 25 Senate committees and 45 House committees.
The job of Illinois state representative or senator is considered part-time.
State Sen. Dale Righter, R - Mattoon, said the legislature is in no position to give elected officials more money, given the financial condition of the state.
“I would have been more likely to vote for the budget bill if Democrats would have kept the pay cut where it was. Illinois is really struggling financially and economically,” he said. “There’s very little justification for allowing our pay to increase when so many other Illinoisans are out of jobs.”
Whether voting against extending a pay cut can be considered a pay raise or not is for pundits and voters to decide.
2011’s pay cut came in the form of 12 furlough days, best understood as mandatory time off without pay.
State Rep. Mary Flowers, D - Chicago, stood firm against the idea that the state’s financial struggles should keep legislations from taking home more money.
“We were not responsible for the economy going down. We are not responsible for the loss of jobs or increasing prices on education and food,” she said. “We deserve a pay raise because we work hard and serve our communities proudly.”
“I make no apologies. If we were keeping in concert with inflation, this pay raise should actually be much higher than it is.”
State Rep. Ron Sandack, R - Downers Grove, called the move “ridiculously bad policy and bad for Illinois.”
“We should have kept the furlough days and left the pay were it was,” he said. “The state’s finances are hurting.”
Sandack decried the pay raise while supporting the related bill to which it was attached - legislation that guarantees lawmakers will receive pay regardless of other appropriations measures and defends against the governor’s power to strip away that pay, as Gov. Quinn did in retaliation to not immediately passing pension reform legislation last year.
“The governor shouldn’t get to determine if we get paid or not as he sees fit. That opens the door to all kinds of bad scenarios. But the entire process is a mess,” he said. “We force legislation through with last minute shenanigans and midnight appropriations bills that we barely have time to read.”
If there was still a representative Government serving the taxpayers this would be a surprise but this action by these criminals fits the pattern of their crimes and irresponsible operation. When a operation is in bankruptcy and has fundamental operation problems raising pay are not part of the restructuring or reform plans. All these criminals should be removed from office and prosecuted for their plunder and crimes against the taxpayers.
The shape this state is in shows clearly these “make no apologies” politicians should be “fired” on election day not given raises.